SNOW! SNOW! SNOW!

It snowed yesterday afternoon and evening and everything was white this morning.  Not a lot but enough that the walks had to be shoveled.  Don't know if it will last until Christmas as the sun is shining brilghtly today and some has already dissappeared, but for right now the juniper tree in Poocharoos yard is gorgeous.  I am glad that I have a heated water dish for her so I don't have to worry about it freezing.  Don't have to worry about the walks either because James, bless his heart, takes care of mine and his and a neighbors.  I don't think I'll be going anywhere as my motto is still:  If it'a snowing I ain't going.  Happy winter to all!!!

THE WEATHER!

It struck me when I looked at the thermometer before venturing outside how our perspective changes.  A couple of weeks with really cold blustery days made me keep to the house and I thought on one particularly brrrrrr! day:  'when did Kansas move to Minnesota?'  Today when I looked out the temp was in the 40's with no wind to speak of and I thought: heat wave, nice day!  On the other hand in the summer heat when the temp is in the 80's with a slight breeze I think: cooled off, pleasant day for getting something done!  I can get a good idea of what it's like to see what Poocharoo is doing (besides watching to see if I'll come out with something  for her to eat!).  In the summer my digger dog digs a nice cool damp spot in the shade to snooze.  Since it is cooler she hunts out the sunshiniest spot out of the wind  to sunbath.  Yesterday it was the top step by the back door since the ground was wet from rain during the night.  Of course, wherever she is hanging out, the slightest noise from me in the kitchen brings her ears up at attention and gets her eyes riveted on the window in the door and if she sees ANY movement she is on the porch doing her jumping jack imitation trying to see inside.  She is almost 10 years old now but her eyesight and hearing doesn't seem to have dimished.  There is the old saying in Kansas (and I think in other states as well):  If you don't like the weather just wait a little while, it will change!   If we didn't have the weather to talk about it would sure cut down on conversation!  And if I didn't have a dog what would I write about?  Enjoy the season and don't forget the ONE who gave it to you and why.  Love y'all!

BIRTHDAYS

As of a week ago on December 3rd  I became another year older by the calendar!  Age is relative: some days I feel every year but on others I feel more like sixteen than seventy-six.  Of course on a bad weather day I feel more like Methusala!  My birthday was pleasant:  all five of my spring-offs  called or came, plus a brother and sister called also.  That evening a good friend and neighbor took James and I out to supper at a fairly new Mexican restaurant in Phillipsburg, good food and good company.  Watching one of my old movies at home later rounded out the day.  I wonder what this next year will bring.  I pray it will be a little less lonely, but whatever it is I know that with Gods help I will get through it.  How could I ask for more?

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE?

I seem to remember that line from a song from back in the sixties or seventies.  I know where mine have gone.  All of the frosts this last month did them in and the morning the dogs water dish had a lid of ice on it last week finished off my hardy mums.  It has been a strange weather year.  Seems as though nothing has gone well around me what with illness, accidents, frustation and loneliness taking their turns at turning my world upside down and inside out.  That old Pennsylvania Dutch saying seems to fit me lately--"The hurrier I go the behinder I get."  What David used to call my Walmart Shuffle,  you know, two steps forward then one step back to look at something.  I start to do something then get sidetracked so I have many projects started that are just waiting for me to get the energy to finish them and that is the hard part--getting the energy.  Maybe I am just feeling my age, my body just isn't cooperating and sometimes my mind just seems to be put on hold.  And here it is birthday time again.  Time flies or seems to whiz by faster.  As one wise old friend said once--"It isn't that time is going faster, it's just that we are going slower!"  Maybe I can't seem to get my projects finished because I no longer have a helper to work with me.  I need to move on but, oh, how I miss him.

NOISE!

You would think that a small rural town smack dab in the middle of the country (literally!) would be quiet.  Not so!  Where I live on Court Street:  (1) railroad tracks are 2 blocks south and they are busy with trains day and night year round and where they cross the highway just 3 blocks away they blow their whistles each time they go through and when the whistle blows the dogs all begin to bark, mine included. and I am surrounded by dogs, (2)  the grain elevator if just on the other side of the tracks (straight south of me) and the rail cars are being shuffled year round (they seem to like to do this in the middle of the night!), from harvest on it seems like the grain dryer goes constantly (multiply the noise your clothes dryer makes a hundred fold plus and you get some idea of the noise IT makes), (3) the highway is a major one for this area with MANY trucks going through north and south and with a four way stop less that 2 blocks to the west all the starting and stopping of the trucks plus all the other traffic does produce a little noise (all the mufflers are not quiet around here), also the trucks turning off for the elevator especially at havest time but not limited to that time of year (6 months out of the year) then continue on another block or so to the east cross the tracks back to the north and come down Court Street to the four way stop and back on the highway, (4)  one block west of the four way stop is the city hall and the fire house, the siren is only one block away and when IT goes off (and with the dry hot summer we had it went off a LOT) so do the dogs, (5) the county court house is just half a block to the east with the county jail just on the other side of it, more traffic on Court Street, (6) the grade school is just  east of the court house, more traffic (busses etc.), (7) the alley by my house gets a lot of traffic from neighbors wanting to get to Court  Street and the convenience of the four way stop (at least since they paved it last year I don't get all the dust), (8) the post office is just one block west on Court, (9) the dogs also announce when the mailman has come or anyone elso stops, (10) and last but not least is the WIND!!!!, when someone asks me if Kansas is really windy I just say YES!!! 
    But that same wind is a blessing to me.  I can sit in my chair in the living room and hear my wind chimes almost every day and if I close my eyes I can still see David going up and down the aisle at Hobby Lobby testing them all until he decided on just the right sound before buying it for me just a couple weeks before he died, and then the look of pleasure on his face when he turned to me after hanging it and it began to chime along with the one he had bought for me the year before (they seem to harmonize).  He gave me music!  And as I sit and listen to them my small corner of this noisey world does not seem so dark and lonely.  I miss him.

IT JUST MIGHT BE SPRING!

My daffydowndillies are blooming, the grass is greening, my pussywillow has pussies on it, the trees and shrubs are loaded with buds of leaves and blossoms, and it is WARM t-shirt weather with several days lately in the 70's. This last fall and winter have been diffucult. Two bad falls (nothing broken but I feel like every joint went out of place!), the flu bug followed by bronchitis(?) and pneumonia, and then my own personal bug took over for the rest of the winter giving me a bad case of cabin fever! I feel like I missed all of the holidays this winter having spent them home alone sick. It has been so nice to be out in the yard watching everthing sprout and making plans about what I want to do this year. I miss David very much right now because that is one thing that we so enjoyed doing together. Of course I couldn't accomplish as much now without James's help. Thank You Lord for the promise and renewal of Spring!